2000 range rover 4.6 vouge lpg

I have recently purchased a 2000 Range Rover 4.6 Vouge LPG, checked oil and water and drove it home 150 mile, at approx 50 mile from home it overheated suddenly, I thought a pipe had burst but all pipes were ok, LPG system was working as it should all the way home as well, apparently the engine had been replaced some 30k miles before.
Filled with water all ok for another 10 mile and it did the same, so called out the RAC, he did a check on the water for HGF but there was no emmission gases in the water so he ruled out the head gasket and beleived it was a sticking thromostat.
I got home and replaced the thermostat which is built into a plastic housing with 4 pipes connecting to it.
Took feeding tube off top of radiator and filled expansion bottle to top, allowed it to seep through until it started to come out of top of radiator and reconnected the feeder pipe, ran car with expansion cap off as the rave disc at 2000 revs till engine warms up.

The trouble I find is that the water starts to come over the top of the expansion bottle with the top of, with the top on the water is preasurising the system and the hoses are rock hard, car drives ok heat is coming out of the heating system ok, then it suddenly goes cold and the car temp gauge shoots up and reads it is overheating. I suggests like a air bubble suddenly moves.

The result is I am back to square one again, any suggestions of any components to check would be appreciated

this does not sound good, is the rad hot all over.

run it on petrol alone and see if it still happens, it could be the vapouriser membrane gone!!

the rad could be blocked

the water pump could be ferked.

i'm gonna say its the vapouriser or slipped liners!!

i can sell you a good rangie if ya want!!! top hat linered no chance of it slipping!!!

you could even put the bottom end on your car and have a trouble free rangie life!!

New rad on car, radiator is hot all over, when the revs are 2000 plus driving down the road the heater is giving out hot air, revs drop heater goes cold and soon after the heater gauge begins to show towards overheat.
Top hose pipe on car from rad to block goes rock hard when engine is hot but I think that is just preasurising causing it to go hard.
The car also has slight stutter when on petrol but runs fire when running on lpg.

I have just tried putting a open ended plastic botle on expansion bottle to allow for expansion of water to try and get all the air out of the system and give the water a better head line of water. I did this on my 02reg westminister when I refilled the water system on that and it seemed to get all the air out of it.

have you run it on petrol alone?

Thank you for all your replies, right I have disconnect the vapouriser totally and put the cooling system back to original,
filled with water again,
started car,
fully bleed system,
heater working ok,
let car cool down,
checked water level,
closed bonnet down, started car,
car warms up,
heater working ok,
heater suddenly goes cold and car begins to overheat,
car cools down check water level no water used.
The viterous coupling fan is going around ok, I can feel no difference between being cold or hot.

I think I need Harry Potters wand on this one, any suggests anybody please

the impellor on the inside of the watter pumps are prone to failure so you cant tell really with the fan/vicious coupling

at least the lpg system is ruled out.


look at it logically, when the heater goes cold the water has usually gone somewhere but your saying theres no water loss and no water in oil/steam at exhaust.

does water pump out from the tiny pipe at the top of the rad, is that clear from blockage?

have you filled it whilst the top hose is off?

if you want to give me a ring and we will see if we can get to the bottom of it. pm me for number

Hi Gav,

I replaced the top hose, as you can see it has a built in bleed screw, just gave it a quick run and it seems ok, I think air was lodging in this top hose, a bad design by Landrover, hopefully this has sorted the problem, next 24 hrs will tell.

in case picture does not load heres the direct link http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq107/mg-rovercars/100_2802.jpg

ok update, 6 mile down road and overheats again, going to try taking out new thermostat and give it a check, we have all had faulty new goods before so lets hope it is as simple as that

HGF.........

leave the thermostat out if you can, rules it out completely, or do the old pop it in boiling water test. sounds peculiar if no water is being lost. check water pump, mine blew my rad last week due to faulty expansion lid but the water pump impellers are a pain in the anus. any contamination in oil at all?

also check after its been started and stopped, if when you start it up it shoots an unhealthy amount of water from the exhaust it could be the age old v8 issue....

ok latest update, the pipe going into the bottopm of the rad fron the thermostsat housing was cold yet the engine was red hot, took the new thermostsat housing out that I had fitted and put it in a pan of boiling water, opened ok. but the pan had to be boiling.
fitted the old thermostsat housing again (somebody had broke the thermostat to one side in it so that it was permently open) car is running ok and just about to take it on a long run to retry.
Is there two different temp opening stats because ces the local parts dealer said there was one that opened at 80 odd degs and another at 100 odd degs, but according to local landrover dealer they say there is only one.
will let you all know how I have got on with test run

im not sure on the two different temperatures but see what happens after this run and i am sure someone will have an idea....

LORDPSK said:

fitted the old thermostsat housing again (somebody had broke the thermostat to one side in it so that it was permently open) car is running ok and just about to take it on a long run to retry.

Click to expand...

That should set the alarm bells ringing!!! Good old bodge trick to relieve pressure and slow down the over heating is to either remove or make permanently open thermostat.

Was it a private car purchase or from a dealer.........

It was a trader selling for a friend, so it was a private sale on the invoice

Temp gauge should go up to about half way and sit there all the time.

When I bought mine it also had the stat wedged open a little, the gauge would go between 1/4 and 1/2 all the time up and down, eventually the real problem showed it's head, the same as yours, when I bought mine it was at the right price and I knew the gamble buying like I did, the price was good enough to allow me to put an engine in and still have a cheap car.

Fingers crossed I hope it is the same for you?

Steve

What was the eventual diagnostic result of the fault on your car for the overheating, I paid £3k for mine

I did the water pump, thermostat and flushed the rad (Rad was already new)1st, did these knowing that if/when I ended up changing the engine I would replace them with new anyway...... these made no difference.

Then I stripped the heads of and found the passenger side gasket was blown, I did also find what looked like a crack around one of the liners on the drivers side, but still clutching at straws I decided to just stick the new head gaskets on and give it a go, gaskets are cheap and time was short!!........ still no difference.....

I have now changed the block, along with new cam, followers and chain etc........ only problem is I now have no spark so still not running, time is short for me so not had a chance to get on with working out why it has no spark and fuel yet, I suspect the crank sensor but that is another story!!!

Basically you have the symptoms of slipped liner/cracked block, there are chemicals you can put in the water, like Iron tight etc some say they have good results others say it is short lived, personally as I was thinking it was going to need an engine before I bought it I wanted a safer long term cure.

Steve

LORDPSK said:

What was the eventual diagnostic result of the fault on your car for the overheating, I paid £3k for mine

Click to expand...

For me the sudden random overheat and pressurisation of the cooling system was (in the end) put down to cracked block. Fortunately dealer replaced engine. Hope you don't have to go there.

Trader selling for a 'FRIEND'????